1. Field of the Invention
The invention is a safety device which protects the occupant or passenger of an emergency vehicle as they alight from that vehicle. Drivers and passengers of emergency vehicles are often called upon to respond to situations which require their immediate attention. In responding to the demands of their job, these individuals often exit their vehicle after parking it on the shoulder of a road. Safety devices have been introduced which draw attention to an opening door. These devices are seldom seen on emergency vehicles which must respond to hostile situations, because the very devices intended to protect the police officers or other responding individuals call attention to their presence, often endangering those individuals and subjecting them to harm from a hostile perpetrator.
This invention provides automatic protection when the responding emergency personnel want to be seen, and protects them from inadvertent disclosure when they do not wish to be seen.
2. Description of Prior Art
Previous inventions have solved the problem of how to turn on a warning light on the side face of a vehicle's door, when that door is opened. Some inventions have taught how such an indicator light might blink on and off, mimicking the turn signal of the vehicle.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,844,810 disclosed an invention which would call attention to an open door by selectively illuminating one of two indicator bulbs mounted in a housing in the vehicle door. The invention also disclosed a reflective strip, mounted on the side face of the door, which would reflect any illumination and call attention to the open door. The invention operated on a switch which automatically opened whenever the vehicle door was opened, in the same manner that dome lights are illuminated in modern vehicles today.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,972,173 disclosed an invention intended to illuminate the zone between the vehicle and the open door, while calling attention to the open door. This illumination was intended to assist the occupant as they exited the vehicle, while having a second purpose of always drawing attention to the open door.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,193,895 disclosed an invention which is activated when a vehicle door is opened, and which features a low profile strip of light emitting diodes as the source of illumination. Like the inventions that came before it, this invention is automatically activated by a switch that is activated when the door is opened.
The prior art solves the problem of automatically illuminating a hazard light when a door is opened, but does not address the selection of how the illumination pattern will take on a meaningful pattern, depending on the emergency apparatus that is or is not enabled on the vehicle, nor does it solve the problem of selectively disabling the illumination when such illumination would place the occupant of the emergency vehicle in personal jeopardy. This invention solves these problems, and offers both safety and protection to the occupants of vehicles so equipped.